The electronic delivery of public services in India is set to get a major boost as the new government embarks on the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) 2.0. Also referred to as e-Kranti, the NeGP 2.0 is a part of the government’s broader Digital India initiative and aims to scale up and boost e-governance initiatives across the country. An amount of Rs 1,130 billion has been earmarked for moving all government-to-citizen transactions in the education, health, banking and public services sectors onto online platforms to digitally empower citizens of all strata.

The NeGP 2.0 has been conceptualised as a major upgrade from the existing NeGP programme, which has been in the process of execution since 2006. Currently, over 110 million transactions are being delivered every month under the mission mode projects (MMP) identified in the previous version of the programme. However, there is an urgent need to enhance the portfolio of these MMPs to include more citizen-centric domains and services. The framework of the NeGP 2.0 proposes new and revised models of implementation and the service delivery of e-governance initiatives. It also lays emphasis on the central role that emerging technologies like cloud and mobile can play in the country’s digital transformation.

Within the next two years, around 150,000 post offices will be transformed into multi-utility centres and around 250,000 government schools will get broadband and free Wi-Fi, along with e-versions of all schoolbooks. Apart from digitally enabling citizens, the programme will bring in significant cost savings as far as the delivery of public services is concerned. As per a study commissioned by the previous government, the online transfers of pensions alone can bring down delivery costs by a third.

Upgrade from NeGP 1.0

The need was felt for an upgraded version of the NeGP as the existing programme had failed to make a substantial difference over the past eight years. Tardy approvals, weak standards, lack of mission approach in implementation, time overruns, low degree of process reengineering, underutilisation of prevailing core information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, weak monitoring and evaluation systems, and last mile connectivity challenges in rural areas prevented the programme from reaching its full potential.

Under NeGP 1.0, slow progress has been reported on the 31 projects identified for implementation in a mission mode manner. Many of these projects were in fact an add-on to the ones already being implemented by the National Informatics Centre or the states. For instance, e-governance initiatives for road transport, treasuries, land records, municipalities, commercial taxes, excise, pensions, income tax, electronic data interchange and e-courts were already under way, and were brought under the NeGP’s purview to widen the plan’s scope. However, these projects have continued to be executed as silos with limited impact on a broader level. Projects like e-districts, e-offices, e-posts, and electronic public distribution systems (PDSs) are still in the early stages of completion. At present, only Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have online PDSs. Meanwhile, the common service centres in many states are yet to see the light of day.

Passport Seva, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ MCA21 system and the e-procurement portal are among the few e-governance initiatives that have shown promise.

New focus

Expected to be a substantial improvement over the original NeGP programme, e-Kranti has identified 10 new MMPs for bringing about a government-wide transformation by delivering all public services electronically through integrated and interoperable systems. These span areas like financial inclusion, agriculture, geographic mapping, rural development, social benefits and language localisation.

The underlying principles, institutions and instruments on which e-Kranti will work include the transformation (and not translation) of public services, provision of integrated services on an end-to-end basis, and mandatory government process reengineering in every MMP. The scope of the programme also includes encouraging the infrastructure-on-demand model, increasing the role of cloud computing, making mobile devices a preferred platform, mandating standards and protocols, security and electronic data preservation, promoting the effective use of social media, transforming delivery channels, fast-tracking approvals, and using ICT to improve national productivity. The government also plans to set up a national e-governance academy and create a repository of e-governance projects through a knowledge portal.

Implementing e-Kranti

• NII 2.0: National Information Infrastructure 2.0 will consolidate and integrate the currently available and proposed network infrastructure, such as the National Knowledge Network, the State Wide Area Network and the National Optical Fibre Network. It will leverage the latest network technologies like software-defined networks in order to provide on-demand infrastructure to government departments.
• PayGov India: This is an online national payment gateway for citizens to pay fees for availing any government services.
• MeghRaj: The Government of India’s cloud will enable departments and agencies at the central and state levels to leverage cloud computing for the effective delivery of e-services.
• eGov App Store: Using this, a large number of successful and time-tested applications can be hosted for immediate adoption by departments and agencies. These efforts will be complemented by establishing an eGov Application Directory and an eGov Services Directory, both of which will be based on service-oriented architecture standards for the publication, discovery and consumption of services.
• Mobile Seva: The Mobile Seva platform, which was launched in July 2011, is aimed at mainstreaming mobile governance in the country. Mobile Seva provides all possible mobile-based channels for service delivery, including SMS, unstructured supplementary service data, interactive voice response systems and mobile applications. It now aims to provide location-based and cell-based services.
• e-Pramaan: It is a framework for the e-authentication of users who access online services through the web or mobile phones. It fully incorporates and uses the Aadhaar authentication mechanism provided by the Unique Identification Authority of India.
• e-Governance standards: Open standards offer innovative solutions that can fix one particular challenge faced by government departments: the high licensing costs associated with the acquisition and deployment of ICT.
• Language localisation: All e-Kranti governance applications will be developed in constitutionally recognised Indian languages to improve their uptake.
• e-Taal 2.0: This will be an enhanced version of e-Taal and incorporate additional features such as business intelligence tools, an e-services directory, a local language interface, a weighted average system for various services, a geographical orientation to service delivery points, and a comparative analysis of states and e-services in terms of e-transactions.
• Social media: Recognising the power of social media, the government has notified a policy on its use by government departments and agencies.

Conclusion

Given the government’s vision of digitally enabling the country, the telecom industry can look to implement e-Kranti for bringing about the much-awaited revolution in the e-governance space. The programme can provide streamlined digital services to Indian citizens and strengthen the country’s socio-economic development. However, its on-ground implementation will be crucial in determining its success in the long run. In addition, lessons must be drawn from the previous NeGP programme to ensure that the upgraded version does not meet the same fate as its predecessor.